The World bank has disclosed that Northern Nigeria accounts for 87 per cent of all the poor people in the country.
This is contained in its 2016, report titled ‘Advancing social protection in a dynamic Nigeria’, released on January 28, 2020, and described as a ‘detailed analysis of the social protection sector’ in the country.
The report noted that social protection measures implemented by the government in Nigeria had not been able to address the high level of poverty, as well as the negative impact of conflicts and…
The World Bank observed that although Nigeria was a richly endowed country, it had a larger proportion of the world’s extreme poor than any other nation.
The report further noted that most of the poor in Nigeria were found in the Northern part of the country.
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, is from Katsina, a state in the North-West, which like other parts of the North, has produced a larger proportion of Nigerian leaders.
Looking at inequality in the country, the report said, “Nigeria experiences high inequality along geographic lines, with poverty mostly concentrated in the North and in rural areas.
“Poverty in the northern regions of the country has been increasing, especially in the North-West zone.
“Almost half of all the poor lived in the North-West and the North accounts for 87 per cent of all the poor in the country in 2016.”
“Poverty rates in the southern zones were around 12 per cent with little variation across zones. The South-South zone saw the most significant drop in poverty from 2011-2016.
“Poverty was significantly higher in rural areas of the country in 2016. An estimated 64% of all poor lived in rural areas and 52% of the rural population lived below the poverty line in 2016. In contrast, the poverty rate in urban areas remained stable at 16% between 2011 and 2016.”
Painting the picture of a relatively prosperous South and an impoverished North, the report stated, “Regionally, the North lags far behind the South in every human capital outcome. People in the Northern regions are also more vulnerable to falling into poverty.
The report established a link between poverty in the North and the Boko Haram insurgency. According to the World Bank, most of the youth recruited by Boko Haram are jobless, a development which made them more prone to radicalisation.
It noted that the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East since 2014 had created a sense of ‘failed political promise’.
It added, “Disasters and conflict have displaced many Nigerians, especially in the North-East. According to estimates provided by the International Displacement Monitoring Centre, there were more than two million internally displaced persons in Nigeria as of 31 December 2018.
“In 2018 alone, more than 600,000 Nigerians were displaced due to natural disasters and more than 540,000 were displaced due to conflict and violence.
“In the North-East, the emergence of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram since 2014 has not only caused large scaled displacement, but also several incidences of kidnapping, death, and injuries, and the erosion of social contract due to widespread perception of a failed political promise. Poverty and deprivation have played a central role in fostering a social divide.
“The youth used by Boko Haram to partake in the conflict are jobless, without skills, or trades, and are easily susceptible to radicalisation,” the report said.
The World Bank added that besides conflict, climate related factors had caused additional displacement in the North and the Middle Belt regions of the country.
In 2018, flooding affected 80 per cent of the country and triggered more than 600,000 new displacements.
The report said, “Social protection measures in the country are neither well-suited to respond to conflict, nor well-placed to anticipate and mitigate the risks of natural disasters caused by climate change.”
Weak governance, lack of basic infrastructure, poor quality of education, and poor social service delivery, were identified as some of the reasons for the high level of poverty in Nigeria.
According to the report, “Poverty remains high in Nigeria due to its dire social service delivery outcomes and lack of basic infrastructure.
Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children of primary school age in the world with nine million children out of school.
“There has been little change in vaccination rates over the last 25 years and Nigeria is set to overtake India as the country with most under-five deaths in the world.”
(C) Control TV 2020.
